In a real-world shopping venue, such as a brick-and-mortar store, there can be one or more electronic displays for displaying information to patrons, customers, shoppers, guests, or other visitors. Such displays can be large screens mounted in locations that are readily visible, such as above entrances or aisles, near store shelves or product displays, on walls, or in other suitable locations. The displays can be included in embedded devices that are used for a variety of purposes, such as digital signage, product images, advertising, and providing various other forms of information that may be of interest to the visitors. Marketers can benefit from identifying whether visitors to an open environment such as a store belong to the same group (e.g., are in the same family or couple). Shopping is often a family activity. However, stores are often unable to provide a family-friendly/couple-friendly shopping experience because retailers lack sufficient information to enhance the experience for couples and families visiting their stores.
In contrast to online shopping environments, brick-and-mortar stores and other real-world shopping venues lack means to readily identify customers as belonging to a group such as a family. As a result, real-world shopping venues do little or nothing to facilitate customer-to-customer communications to encourage recommendations and collaborative shopping between group members.
It is desirable to identify visitors to a real-world shopping venue as belonging to the same group, such as a family or couple. Efficient identification of such visitors can increase visitor responsiveness to products presented to the visitors while the visitors are in the real-world shopping venue (e.g., while family members are shopping in a store).